Breaking up is the right thing to do.(COLLEGE BASKETBALL)

There is no ideal time for divorce, just as there isn't for open-heart surgery. This is something you do out of necessity, when there are no other options. So it is for Indiana and coach Mike Davis. It is time for them to separate.

From their shotgun wedding more than five years ago until today, their relationship hasn't always been tumultuous, but it mostly has been so. Theirs was a marriage of convenience; Davis was standing in a favorable spot when IU judged that Bob Knight had violated its zero-tolerance conduct policy. No one at Indiana has embraced Davis since that stunning March night in 2002 when the Hoosiers upset defending national champion Duke in the Sweet 16.

The dissolution of this relationship became inevitable from the moment athletic director Rick Greenspan announced last spring, after a disappointing 15-14 season, that Davis would return for 2005-06. That declaration, which said the Hoosiers would set "ambitious and achievable" goals for this year, imploded recruiting for the 2006 class. It served as a signal that Davis, with three years left on his contract, was in a win-or-else circumstance.

Win what, though? Indiana was 5-3 through the first half of the Big Ten season, only a game and a half from first place. It didn't matter that the Hoosiers had beaten Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio State and Illinois--when they delivered a disastrous performance in a 19-point loss at Minnesota, the familiar vitriol returned to IU basketball. It's not healthy for anyone involved.

Indiana needs a new coach it will embrace so it can get on about the business of bringing the program's equipment and facilities to the Michigan State-of-the-art standard. A program of IU's stature should not trail anyone when it comes to spending on recruiting needs and on amenities that make a program first-class.

Davis can be an effective head coach, but he needs a job in which he'll have consistent leadership above him. He has had four athletic directors, some less competent than others. He needs to go where the person in charge won't micromanage his program as a means of making the exit door appear inviting. He needs to go where his strength recruiting the South will be viewed as an asset. Davis has done an inadequate job recruiting in-state, but he covered by bringing D.J. White from Alabama, Roderick Wilmont from Florida and Bracey Wright from Texas. He coached in the 2002 NCAA championship game. He got there with one NBA talent, Jared Jeffries. Such an accomplishment does not happen by accident.

The Hoosiers need to be in a situation in which they feel pressure to perform for their teammates and futures, not to limit criticism of their coach. In mid-January, fans rushed the court after a victory over Illinois. Two weeks later, players were being asked about Davis' job security.